Look for the Light
by Michael7123
Summary: The story of Marcus and Kathryn Barrett, and the founding of the Fireflies. Set 10 days after the events of The Last of Us prologue. Rated M for violence, swearing, and generally everything going to hell. I only own the original characters.
1. Chapter 1

**[AN] This is the first story I have ever written. I own none of this, but the main characters are original. This may contain spoilers later on, but not for several more chapters at least.**

**I would recommend on finishing chapter 3 before deciding to continue the rest of the story. The first part of the story isn't as exciting, but I still needed to include it. **

**If you could leave feedback, either positive or negative, that would be appreciated. Thanks for reading!**

**Chapter 1:**

* * *

"Begin scan, First Airman Barrett." Ordered his commanding officer through his helmet.

"Yes sir." Marcus replied, flipping the switch on his control panel.

_Thank God I got assigned to a base so close to home._ He thought to himself, down over the still functional city of Boise, Idaho. He had seen some reports on what had been going on in other cities, and it horrified him. His father owned a farm a couple miles out from the city. Back when he was assigned to Mountain Home Air Force base three years ago, he considered himself lucky. Now, he considered himself one of the luckiest men alive.

He quickly looked to the photo of his family that he always kept on him and smiled. He was so glad he was able to get Kathryn and Cory to his father's farm before Boise (eventually) went to hell. While he had no doubts about Kathryn's ability to take care of herself (his wife always outperformed him at the shooting range, and he was quite a good shot himself), they both agreed that staying in the city was insane, especially with Cory, their one year old son to look after. They had seen on TV what had happened to some other cities, and while Boise was clean right now...

Marcus stopped himself. He had to focus on making sure the scan was going smoothly. He knew they would be more than safe with his father.

He looked out of the cockpit, down on Boise. It was one of the few remaining cities that was almost entirely functional. It had been a week and a half since the outbreak, and the walls around the city were already being placed. It looked so peaceful in the red light from the sunset.

He heard a beeping on the terminal, and checked the scan results.

"Staff Sargent Merton, this is Airman First Class Barrett. Calling in to report negative scan readings."

"Understood Barrett. Return to base."

"Yes sir."

Marcus hesitated for a moment. He spoke into his headset, "Sir, are you sure the scanners are working?"

In spite of the protocol breach, Merton calmly responded, " They were inspected yesterday. They work fine."

"Well, it just seems strange that I'm not picking anything. I'm not saying the scanners are wrong, but I can't think of a single explanation for why the fungus hasn't spread anywhere near Boise."

"I'm sure there is some good reason for it. All methods of getting in and out of the city were shut down. Hell, all flights in and out the entire state Idaho have been canceled. All ten of them anyways." Merton responded with a chuckle.

Marcus laughed, "Ain't that the truth." His voice returned to normal, "ETA to base is 3 minutes."

"Confirmed. The landing strip will be clear. "

"Thanks".


	2. Chapter 2

Marcus got out of the cockpit, and walked up to the mechanic. He asked, "Do me a favor. Can you do a quick check on the scanners. I'm not even picking up traces of the fungus. It's possible, but something feels wrong."

The mechanic seemed lost in his thoughts, but responded quickly enough when Marcus talked to him, "I checked them last night, but I'll give them another check if you want. I have to admit, not even picking up traces of the fungus is unusual."

Marcus watched him for a minute or so, and decided to make some small talk. "So, what's your name?"

"Austin Lindauer. Your's?"

"Marcus Barrett. You wouldn't happen to be from Texas, would you?"

Austin sighed jokingly, "Every time, without fail..." He chuckled. "No, I'm from New York."

"Oh. Got any family there?"

"My mother lives in Manhattan" his voice broke a bit, "I hope."

_Oh shit_. Marcus thought. New York City had gone to hell eight days ago. Last word out of the city, there were more infected inside the city then healthy. Those who weren't infected were either dead, trying to escape the city, or killing anyone they came across. The city was deemed completely unsalvageable by the government. From what he had seen on TV, it was awful.

"I'm sorry. I'm guessing you haven't heard from her."

"Nope." He said with a sigh.

After a few minutes, Austin got up. "I can't find anything wrong with it."

"Well, I guess I was being paranoid. Thanks for checking it out."

"No problem." Austin said, but Marcus could tell his mind was somewhere else.

_That poor bastard_. Marcus thought, walking to the barracks. He couldn't imagine what Austin must be going through.

When he got inside, he went to the phone to call his father's place. His wife got on the phone, "Hello?"

"Hi Kathryn. How are you holding up at my dad's farm?"

"We're fine over here. But from what I can tell, you must of had a very dull childhood."

"You'd be surprised. You can't imagine what awesome parties the cows had."

Kathryn laughed," All jokes aside, your father is a gem. Your real lucky to have him."

"We'll, not as lucky as I am to have you honey. Mind putting Cory on the phone?"

"Sure thing." There was a brief pause, and he heard his wife tell their son daddy was on the phone.

"How you doing Cory?" Marcus spoke softly, a smile appeared across his face. He had met Kathryn a couple of months after he finished basic training, and they got married 4 months afterwards. From the moment his father saw her, he told Marcus that somehow, he knew she would be right for him.

His wedding had been the happiest day of his life. They both thought they could never be happier. Then, a little more then nine months later, Cory came into both their lives.

"Dada." Cory said on the other side of the phone.

Marcus was stunned. He had never heard Cory speak before. "Yeah, it's me. How you holding up over there kiddo."

"Dada" Cory replied.

Marcus and Kathryn both smiled. Kathryn said into the phone, "Come on Cory, I need to talk to dada about something, ok?" She knew Cory didn't understand a word she was saying, but she didn't care.

Kathryn got on the phone again, "So, how is Boise holding up?"

Marcus didn't hesitate, even though he probably was not allowed to tell Kathryn about that info, "It's still clean, somehow. We got very lucky. I meet some poor guy who's mother lived in Manhattan."

Kathryn cringed. "That poor soul."

"Yeah. I can't imagine what most people are going through right now. Most people in the country have lost contact with at least someone."

"I'm glad that hasn't happened to us yet"

"You're much to good of a shot for anything to happen to us. Trust me."

They both laughed. "You mentioned something the other night about a quarantine zone getting set up in Boise?"

"It's happening. Last I heard, the walls around the city are about halfway set up, and getting food to the city shouldn't be a problem. After all, this is Idaho. We may be able to keep Boise in more or less of a stable state. "

"You sound optimistic."

"I have good reason to be. I haven't picked up anything but traces of the cordyceps, and the numbers from yesterday have actually gone down."

"Thats great."

"Indeed it is. Mind if I talk to my dad for a bit?"

"Not at all. I need to get to sleep anyways. Goodnight, call me in the morning."

"Sure thing. Goodnight"

Kathryn's walked over to the garage with the phone, "Hey, Jason. Marcus is on the phone."

"Thanks," said Marcus's father. "Hello, Marcus, you there son?"

"Yep. How are you holding up over there?"

"Just fine. Yourself?"

"Great."

They chatted for a couple of minutes, when Jason commented, "From the moment I saw Kathryn, I had a feeling you would be perfect for her."

"You were right dad. As always."

There was a brief pause. Marcus said, " Ever since me and Kathryn had Cory, I've been thinking a lot about you." Another pause. "All those years, I never realized how much you cared for me, in spite of all the crazy shit I did. I thought I could never care anyone more then I loved Kathryn, but Cory is everything to me. Don't worry, I still love Kathryn, and would never leave her, she feels the same way about our son."

"What I'm trying to say, is that I never fully understood why you managed to put up with me until about a year ago. I knew that you loved me because you were my father, but I never knew it would be like this."

" I realize how all the hardship I put you through must have hurt you. I know that all the times I went against you in what really mattered, it must have been like a knife in your gut. I'm sorry for all of that."

"I want to say thank you dad. Thank you for always being there for me. Thanks for making me the man I am today. I can only hope to be a good a father to Cory as you were to me."

Tears were welling up in Jason's eyes. "I know son. When I fell in love with your mother, I felt the exact same way. Then you came into my life. I can't deny a word of what you just said, about the hurt you caused. I can't blame you for it, and I never stopped loving you. You are a fine young man, and I'm proud to be your father. "

"I know dad."

They were silent for a minute. Marcus broke the science, saying "I have to go. Dinner is in 12 minutes, and I'm starving."

"I love you Marcus. Goodnight."

"I love you too dad. 'Night."


	3. Chapter 3

**[AN] This is the part where things get exciting. If you have gotten this far in the story, I want to say thank you, things (hopefully) get better from here (quality wise, that is. The people in the story are still screwed.)**

**Chapter 3:**

* * *

"Damn, that was a good meal." Tony said to Marcus as they were walking back to the barracks in the early evening light.

"That's the first time I have ever heard you say that. You always complain about how the food here sucks. Why the change of heart?"

"My wife and I just learned we're having a child." Tony replied with a smile beaming on his face.

Marcus mocked horror and said, "That poor soul. No human being should have to live with you for 18 years."

They both laughed. "Well, congratulations Tony. You're in for quite the adventure. I speak from experience here."

"Ain't nothing I can't handle." Tony replied, still beaming.

"Try saying that when you can only manage 3 hours of sleep a night."

Tony's face got more serious, "Well, we don't get much more right now, with the cordyceps fungus keeping us on high alert. To be honest, this is one of the longest periods of time I have had outside of a cockpit for the past couple of days." He shook his head, "I picked up the same scan results you did, absolutely no signs of the fungus. Its hard to believe it, but I'm not complaining."

"Same here. Boise just might we the first whole city in the country to be turned into a QZ zone. Most other cities only have small parts that are remotely safe. I recon that within another 4 days, a fully working quarantine zone will be set up there. If our luck holds out."

"That sounds about right." They stopped just outside the barracks , "Thank God military families get priority for admittance, if it ever comes to that. It can't though, not here. This is fucking Idaho, there are more cattle in this state then people."

They both laughed. "Tony, give your wife a call, then get some sleep. It's going to be a hectic day tomorrow."

"Is that an order sir?" Tony faked trembling in fear. As an Airman First Class, Marcus slightly outranked Tony.

"Do I have to make it one, Airman Hernandez?" Tony replied with mock severity.

They both laughed. "Well, I'll see you in the morning. 'Night Tony"

"'Night Marcus." They went to their separate barracks.

Marcus flopped into his bed, and tried to get some sleep. Since there was no one else inside, due to almost everyone being on duty trying to ensure Boise was clear of the infection, he fell asleep within seconds of lying down.

* * *

[A few hours later]

Marcus woke up to Tony shaking him.

"Wake up, wake up now damn it!"

"Tony... What the fuck. Let me sleep." He tried to fall asleep again, but Tony persisted.

"Wake up! There's been an outbreak here, and wee need to leave now!"

That got his attention. He sat up, tony handed him a red bull, "I know your a heavy sleeper, drink this. It'll help."

Marcus drank it, then immediately wished he hadn't, "Shit, did you have to get me red bull? You know I hate that crap." He stopped, and noticed the blood on Tony's shirt. "Oh Fuck. You have blood everywhere. Were you bitten? Tell me this isn't happening."

"I'm clean, but it was a close call. Come on, get up, we need to get to the armory. We need weapons."

Marcus felt like someone had stuck an axe in his skull. He was exhausted, but he realized Tony was serious. He forced himself to stand up, and stretched. "Just give me a minute for the Red Bull to kick in."

Tony nodded. "Ok, but no more then that. Things have gone to shit out there, we have to leave." Marcus found a cold water bottle, and pored it over his head. He was wide wide awake now. "Lets go." They walked out of the barracks.

"Almost forgot, take this Marcus," he handed Marcus a nine millimeter pistol, "I know you're the better shot."

"Just wait until you see my wife, she puts me to shame when it comes to marksmanship. Where the hell did you get this?"

"One of the officers had turned, and he had this on him. The entire HQ is swarmed with infected now." He paused for a second. "The armory is this way. Hopefully, it is still held by people who are still human."

They ran towards the armory in the dead of night, relying on the faint moonlight to guide them. After a minute of running, they heard a scream.

"What the fuck was that?"

"I don't know, but stay close to me, you have the gun. And keep quiet!"

They crept towards the armory. Right in front of the armory, they saw a soldier hunched over, with his face to the wall.

"That poor son of a bitch." Marcus whispered "It looks like he turned."

"We can't sneak in there, he's too close to the door."

"If I shoot the gun, every infected within a mile would hear it. Shit."

Marcus thought for a moment, then whispered, "Do you have a knife?"

"Tell me you aren't thinking about-"

"We don't have another choice. We can't shoot the gun, and we aren't going to make it out of here with just this pistol. We have to get in there."

"Well fuck us." Tony paused for a moment. "I'll do it."

"No. You have a pregnant wife to look after. My wife can survive without me. If anything happens to me, find your family, then find mine. You know where my father's house is, right?"

"Yeah, I know."

"You deserve to be a father." Marcus smiled. "Have fun with waking up at this hour every day."

Tony let out a small chuckle, and handed him a bloody knife. "Well good luck out there. Take the gun with you too, in case something goes wrong."

Marcus stopped when he saw the blood on the knife. "_Man up Marcus, if Tony could knife an infected to death, so can you_."

He slowly crept up to the weeping guard. He thought he could make out something to the effect of , "Oh God, oh God, help me. Let me die." Mixed into the tears. He was having small spasms, but was still standing.

"_Don't think about it, don't think about it."_ Marcus thought over and over. This, of course, made him think about it.

Marcus was just in range of the guard when he turned around. Marcus froze, and so did the guard. A split second later, Marcus pounced on the guard, tackled him to the ground, and stuck the already bloody knife into his neck.

"_Fuck fuck fuck_." Marcus thought aloud as he got up. He saw the man bleeding out on the pavement, next to the door to the armory door. As he went down to pick up the keys on the guard, he thought he heard him say, "Thank you." Marcus lost the red bull he had drank a few minutes ago. He felt awful.

Tony quietly walked up to him. "That poor bastard." He saw the look on Marcus's face. "Oh fuck, you look like shit. You okay?"

"I'm an awful lier. No, I feel awful."

"Did he bite you?" Tony said, worried as he picked up the keys.

"No. But he almost did. He turned around just as I was in range, but then stooped. It was as if -" he paused for a moment, " he still had some control of his body. But if I had waited a second longer-"

Tony put a hand on his shoulder. "Don't think about it. He's dead now, and there was nothing else you could do. Lets get inside."

"Ok, lets get ourselves arm - Aw fuck." Tony said as he entered the armory.

Marcus looked at the mostly empty weapon racks. "We should have known. Most of the weapons are probably down in Boise, with soldiers guarding the city."

Tony walked over to the nearest weapon, an M16. He saw 4 full mags next to it. "This will do well enough, I hope." He looked over to Marcus, what are you getting?"

"Kevlar vests."

"Good idea. Toss me one. Actually, make that two."

"How are you going to carry two of them with the M16?"

"You saw the Jeep next to the armory?" He showed Marcus the dead guard's keys, "I think these will start it up. This is our lucky day."

"I'd rather not have a lucky day ever again if this is 'luck' ".

"No shit. What you find?"

"All I have is this shotgun with 2 boxes of ammo, and another nine millimeter, with 2 clips. You can have yours back now."

"Much obliged." Tony said, taking back the pistol.

Marcus looked at the wall. He saw 6 gas masks hanging there. "The fungus can be airborne. We should take these."

"Agreed. How many kevlar vests are left?"

"Just 3. You have one for you and your wife, the rest are for me, my wife, and my dad." He looked to Tony, "Anyone else you know in the area that might need one of these?"

"Nope. No family here except my wife."

"Ok then, lets get the fuck out of here."

Tony walked out of the armory, and walked to the jeep, with Marcus right behind him, with what little equipment they managed to scrounge from the armory.

* * *

**[AN] If you have gotten this far, I want to say thank you. If you could take a moment to leave a review, that would be awesome, and would encourage me to keep writing.**


	4. Chapter 4

**Look for the light chapter 4**

**[AN] I'm going to try and get at least one chapter out every day, so check here often. Thanks for reading.**

* * *

**Chapter 4:**

Marcus and Tony piled their supples into the back seats of the jeep. Tony got in the drivers seat, and started up the car. Almost instantly, they heard shrieks from the infected coming closer to them. Marcus rushed into the passenger side front seat.

"Lets get the fuck out of here!"

"What do you think I'm doing?" Tony replied, as he drove away from the armory.

Marcus turned around and reached for the M16 Tony had placed in the back of the car. Out of the back, he saw at least a dozen infected running after the car.

"Tony, don't stop driving." Marcus said while putting the first magazine into the gun.

"Wasn't planning on it. We'll go to your dad's farm, then we'll go to my place."

"Sounds like a plan."

When they got to the gate, they found it wide open. The man in the control booth was hunched over, and weeping. "Damn", said Tony, looking at the infected man as he drove past.

"Nothing we can do, just keep driving." Marcus sighed. "You wouldn't happen to have a cell phone on you, would you?"

"Nope. I sure wish I did though."

They were quite for a couple minutes. Looking at their surroundings now, everything seemed normal. Street lights were on, cars were moving at normal speeds, and Boise was like a beacon of light in the distance. There wasn't a single indicator of the sorry state the rest of the world was in.

"This doesn't make any sense Tony."

"What are you talking about?"

"The outbreak inside the base. I didn't even pick up trace readings during my scan today. I even had my scanners checked after I finished my flight, and they were fine. How could we have missed this?"

Tony didn't reply for a minute, then grimaced. "I can think of one reason. In our obsession to make sure Boise was clean, none of the officers gave orders to check the base."

"That's fucking impossible Tony. They couldn't have been that stupid."

"Well, you know what they say about military intelligence."

Marcus snickered at that. He needed something to get his mind off what had happened an hour earlier.

* * *

[Around 1 Hour later]

"We're almost at your father's place Marcus."

Marcus could make out the farm in the distance. He had never been more relieved to see that house in his life.

"Marcus, we need to decide what our plan is. Do we go to the city now, or wait until the quarantine zone is set up in the city?"

"I'd say we wait for a few days. Boise is clean now, but if the infection spreads there, it would be a nightmare trying to get out. I need to talk to my wife and father about it though."

"Agreed."

As they pulled up to the house, Marcus was glad the lights were off. If they were awake at this hour, it would be because something was wrong.

Marcus got out of the car, still carrying his shotgun, in case something was wrong. He knocked on the door, and a few minutes later, his father opened it.

"What the hell do you want at this — Marcus!" Jason Barrett was stunned once he realized his son was at the door. "Holy shit! You have blood all over you! What happened!" Marcus could see the worry in his father's eyes.

"I'm fine dad, the blood isn't mine. Are Kathryn and Cory still here?"

"Where else would they be? Of course they're here, both of them are asleep. Tell me what is going on."

"Just a second dad, but wake up Kathryn first. She needs to hear this too." He waved over to the Jeep, "Come on in Tony. If nothing else, getting some caffeine would be useful. We can't afford to be tired, and you know it."

Tony was visibly nervous as he walked up to the front porch, "I wouldn't mind a coffee, but I really want to get to my wife before something happens."

"Not a problem. Have a cup of coffee, and take it with you. Take two gas masks, two Kevlar vests, and the M16. Go get your wife, and bring her back here ASAP."

"Sounds like a plan."

Several minutes after Tony left with a cup of coffee, Kathryn walked down the stairs, visibly tired and annoyed at being awake at this hour.

"Why the hell did you wake me — Marcus!" She snapped awake, and rushed down the stairs. "What happened!"

"It's not mine, don't worry Kathryn." He offered her a cup of coffee. "Drink this, it will help."

"God yes." She took the coffe out of Marcus's hands. "Thanks."

After she was fully awake from the coffee, she asked, "You still haven't told me what the fuck happened to you."

He explained what had happened to him and Tony over the past couple of hours. After letting it sink in, Kathryn asked, "So, what do we do now? Should we go into the city, or do we wait until the quarantine zone to be fully set up." She looked at Marcus, "You were saying how the quarantine zone in Boise should be set up in four days or so, right?"

Marcus responded,"Me and Tony had this conversation in the jeep. But, as you were saying, the quarantine zone should be set up in four days. Then again, there wasn't suppost to be an outbreak inside the base too. Honestly, maybe I'm just being paranoid, but I don't want to risk it. Since I'm in the military, we get first priority for any spots in the zone, if it comes to that. I can't see the harm in waiting for things to be secure in Boise. If there is an outbreak with us in the city, we might not make it out alive."

Kathryn replied," Good point. What do you think Jason? What should we do?"

"I agree with Marcus. Waiting a few days can't hurt."

"So we're in agreement?" Marcus asked, looking at both of them. Both nodded their heads affirmatively.

"Great. In that case, dad, Kathryn, get some sleep. I'll keep watch until Tony comes back with his wife." Kathryn was going to protest, but Marcus cut her of, "If we get into trouble, I need you well rested. You aren't going to be a good shot if you only get 5 hours of sleep." He had a point, and the prospect of sleep was welcoming to her.

Marcus checked that the shotgun was loaded, and sat in the living room with a cup of coffee. After an hour of waiting, he heard Cory crying, and went up the stairs to check on him.

"Hey Cory." Marcus said in a soft voice. Cory's cries died down a bit. "How are you holding up in there." He looked down at Cory, crying softly in his crib, and smiled. Then he got worried. "Kid, you're going to grow up in unusual times." he stopped for a moment.

"It's a shame you are going to have to live through this. Nobody should have to deal with this. But always remember, no matter what, me and your mama love you. We will always be there for you. In spite of everything that might happen to us, we will never leave you. Life is worth living because of children like you."

"It will be years before you can understand anything I tell you, but it will be decades before you can truly comprehend what I'm telling you. But no matter what you do, you will always be my son, and I will always love you."

Cory was fast asleep now. Marcus felt slightly embarrassed "W_as I really boring enough to talked him to sleep?_" He chuckled, then went back downstairs to resume waiting for Tony.

* * *

[Around 2 hours later]

Marcus was on edge and exhausted. "Well, how do you expect to feel after eleven cups of coffee at 4:00 am." He thought to himself.

He heard a jeep pull up next to the house. He went outside hoping it was Tony. Thankfully, it was.

"How are you doing" Marcus said without any remote level of enthusiasm.

"Wow you look like shit Marcus. Get to sleep now, give me that shotgun before you blow your own foot off."

"Thanks." He was about to go inside when he asked, "By the way, I don't think you have ever told me your wife's name".

"Hi, my name is Anna, and Tony is right. You do look like shit. Get to sleep now."

"Sure thing." He immediately walked over to the nearest couch, and flopped down on it. Afterwards, he swore he fell asleep before he made contact.


	5. Chapter 5

**[AN] I'm really glad I started writing this series. For those of you who are still with me at this point, thanks. **

**This is the first chapter that contains spoilers. They are minor, early game spoilers, but spoilers nonetheless. Please keep in mind, that 99% of what I'm writing is not cannon. Of you haven't seen it in the game, I made it up.**

**This chapter is gong to be based on Kathryn's third person POV.**

**From now on, I'm going to keep track of time in the story. It will all make sense soon enough. This story started on day 10, just for reference.**

**Quick shout out to Luciferine, author of "Straight on 'Til Morning", "Hell Bound", and "Where the Heart is" for giving me suggestions on how to make this series better. I highly recommend those stories.**

** Now I'll shut up and let you get reading.**

* * *

**Chapter 5:**

**[Day eleven, around 2:00PM Mountain Time Zone]**

Kathryn walked down the stairs, surprisingly well rested in spite of being woken up so early. As soon as she saw Marcus asleep on the couch, she burst out laughing. He was face down, with one arm hanging off the couch. He looked like he had passed out, which wasn't far from the truth.

"Isn't it about time someone woke him up?" She said to Jason, who was heading up the stairs.

"Trust me we've tried. You've been in the same bed with him for almost 2 years now, yo should know there is no waking him up."

"Oh, I know how to get him up." said a voice she didn't recognize.

_That must be Tony, Marcus was waiting for him last night_. She thought to herself.

"Hello Kathryn." Tony said, walking into the room with his wife.

"You must be Tony." She said, smiling, and offering her hand. He shook it. "And you are..." She stopped for a moment.

"My name is Anna. Pleased to meet you." They shook hands.

"A pleasure to meet you both." She replied. "So, Tony, what were you saying about getting my husband awake? I've tried everything before, but nothing seems to work."

Tony had a mischievous grin on his face. "Hey, Mr. Barrett!" He called up the stairs to Jason. "Do you have any Red Bull in the fridge I can borrow?"

"Sure, help yourself." Jason replied chuckling. "So _that's_ how you do it."

"I'm confused. What's with the red bull?" Kathryn asked.

"You'll see." Tony replied while pulling a can out of the fridge. Jason walked down the steps, clearly expecting something interesting to happen.

Kathryn watched curiously as Tony walked over to Marcus and said, "Hey Marcus, drink this now! Quickly!" while he was shaking Marcus awake. Marcus was clearly not happy about getting up, but Tony managed to put the can into his gently pushed it to his lips, and tilted it back. A split second after it entered his mouth, his eyes flew open and he violently spit it out.

"You son of" Marcus coughed, "a bitch." He managed to get that last part out between gags.

By this point everyone in the room was laughing. After a few seconds of coughing, Marcus started laughing too.

"Screw all of you. And _fuck_ red bull."

"Now that his majesty is awake," Anna said pointing at Marcus, " we can start planing on what we're going to do for the next few days."

"Give me a second." Marcus said, walking to the kitchen sink.

After a few minutes of him trying to remove any taste of the red bull from his mouth, he walked into the dining room, where Kathryn, along with all the others, were sitting.

"Please tell me you don't know how to wake me up now Kathryn." Marcus said to Kathryn.

"Don't you wish." Kathryn said smiling at her husband.

Tony started speaking, "Getting to business now, Anna and I agree that we should wait until Boise is secure before we move in."

"Then we all agree," Kathryn said. "In that case we need to figure out what to do until we head to the city." She thought for a moment. "We should have at least one person be a guard, I volunteer."

"To be honest, there isn't much else to do other then to wait.," Jason said. "It would be the best for all of us if we remained armed at all times."

Kathryn nodded her head in agreement, along with everyone else."

"Oh, Marcus, before you do anything else, get a change of clothing." Kathryn said to her husband. Marcus looked down at his still bloody uniform. "Oh shit. I'll put this in for a wash, then get some new clothing on." He said, and walked to the basement.

"Let's wait for him." Kathryn said. Nobody objected.

Marcus came back up the stairs a few minutes later, now in a blue t-shirt and jeans. "I'm back." He said as he walked up the stairs.

"Captain obvious strikes again." Kathryn said.

"No need to thank me," Marcus replied with a smirk on his face. "Tony, where did you put the Kevlar vests?" He asked.

"In the living room." Kathryn watched him walk into the other room, and come back with 5 vests. "We should all put these on. They aren't comfortable, but bullets are much worse."

Kathryn took one from him, and put it on. "It's a bit lighter then I expected it to be."

"That's the exact opposite of what everyone else says." Marcus said, somewhat surprised at his wife's response.

After everyone had a vest on, Anna commented, "After we get armed, we should check the news. It might have some sort of information on the situation in Boise."

"Good thinking. "Jason remarked. "Follow me, I'll show you were the guns are." They all followed him downstairs.

He handed Kathryn a large, bolt action hunting rifle with a scope. "I know for a fact that you should be the one with this." Kathryn slung it over her shoulder.

Jason looked over to Anna, "Do you know how to use a gun?"

Anna said, "Yeah, well enough. I'm a decent shot." He handed her a pump action, 12 gauge shotgun.

Marcus said, "Me and Tony are the only ones with experience with the M16, and, no offense," he looked over to Tony, "but I'm the better shot."

"None taken, it's a law of nature. You are scientifically proven to be a better shot then me. And your wife is scientifically proven to make sure your pride doesn't increase too much." Tony replied.

Kathryn smiled while taking ammo for the hunting rifle.

"Well then, Tony gets the shotgun you two brought here, and I'll take this." Jason said, pulling out a revolver.

"Great. Lets go check on the news, see what's happening in the world." Kathryn sshe's as she headed out of the basement

They all went upstairs and found places to sit in the living room. Tony turned on the TV. It was on CNN. A general was holding a press conference in the Pentagon.

"... with the bureaucrats out of power we can finally take the necessary steps to keep this nation intact. We cannot afford to go through red tape at a time like this. Any minute we wait, we are inadvertently causing the deaths of hundreds, if not thousands of people. People with families, hopes, dreams, and aspirations."

_What the fuck?_ Kathryn thought to herself out loud.

"I do not take this action lightly. This goes against everything we believe as Americans. This goes against everything my parents raised me to believe how our nation works. But they also told me if I had a choice between following the law, or doing what was right, to always choose what was right."

"I cannot simply stand in the sidelines and watch as innocent men and women turn into rabid beasts, ripping apart people they would die for only days before. I had to act. "

"I have no desire to be in charge of this country, especially not like this. I have no desire to destroy what our nation has spent over two decades building up. This is why I brought this."

He pulled out a bible, and placed it on the podium, in plain view of the camera. He placed his right hand on it, and said, "I swear, that I will do everything in my power to save this country, and everything it stands for. Because of this, I also swear that the constitution will be restored within four years time. So help me God."

He took the Bible off the podium, and walked off the stage, ignoring the barrage of questions thrown at him.

"Marcus, Tony," Jason said, " do you know anything about this man? Is he good for his word, or did we just become a military dictatorship?"

"If anyone is trustworthy, it's him." Tony said. "If it was anyone else, I'd be very worried right now, but I havent heard a single bad thing about him."

"He was raised as a strict evangelical Christian." Marcus told his father. "And from what I heard, he isn't the type to swear on the bible unless he is telling the whole fucking truth."

"Well that's reassuring, I guess." Kathryn said.

She heard Cory crying upstairs. "He probably needs a diaper change right now. I got it." She hurried up the stairs.

Just as she finished with Cory's diaper, she heard someone call for help outside. She took the gun off her shoulder, and ran to the nearest window.

She saw a young, African American woman running for her life on the road. Two people were chancing her.

Kathryn put the gun to her shoulder, and aimed at her chasers. Just like she expected, they were infected.

She held her breath in. Then, she pulled the trigger. The closest infected to the woman fell over dead.

The report of the rifle made her ears ring. Cory started crying again, and she heard Marcus say, "Holy Shit!", and heard him running up the stairs.

All of that was blocked out. Kathryn was focused on her next target. She chambered a new round, held her breath, took aim, and fired again.

The second infected man's head blew open, and he fell dead.

Marcus was right behind her, "What the fuck just happened!? Are you ok!?."

Kathryn put the rifle back over her shoulder. "I'm fine, but we need to help that woman out there." She pointed out he window and ran downstairs. Marcus ran after her.

Anna and Tony were already outside, helping to get her inside. She looked exhausted and dehydrated.

"Thank you. You saved my life." She looked up at them.

"Think nothing of it." Said Kathryn.

"Please, if you have any water-".

"On it." Jason had heard the woman just as he got outside, and ran back inside.

They reached the porch when Jason can back outside with the water. The woman took the water and drank it as fast as she could.

"Thank you. God, you must be angles."

"Nope, I'm just one hell of a marksman." Said Kathryn.

Once they had gotten inside, Tony and Anna helped her to the couch. She sat down.

"I can't thank you enough." She looked at Kathryn. "Thanks for taking those infected out. "

"No problem. What happened to you?"

I was driving to Boise, that's were the quarantine zone is." She was breathing heavily. "My car ran out of gas. I saw a man standing next to his car, asked him if he could give me some gas, and then he started chasing me. I figured he was infected, so I ran for my life."

"Where did the second one come from?"

"No idea. He probably heard the noise from the first, and just came along." She took another gulp from the water bottle. "I was running for about 15 minutes when you got them." She looked up at Kathryn. "I was about to pass out any minute. I would be dead right now, if not for you."

"Don't sweat it. What's your name?" Kathryn asked her.

"Marlene." She said, still breathing heavily. "And I don't know how I will ever manage to repay you."


	6. Chapter 6

**[Day 15, around 12:00 PM Mountain Time]**

Marcus walked towards the minivan with the final cooler, and placed it in the trunk. "That's the last one, everyone ready?"

Nobody said otherwise. Marcus got into the drivers seat, next to Tony. They were both wearing their uniforms. Marcus turned around.

"Let's go." Everyone nodded.

Marcus started up the car, and drove towards interstate 84.

There was various small talk in the back seats.

Tony turned to Marcus, "I've never been happier to be in the military. I can't imagine what people must be going through right now, worrying if they can manage to get into a quarantine zone or not. The prospect of being out here anymore is nerve wracking."

Marcus nodded. "We're some of the luckiest people alive. We are the only people that live in Iowa, " Tony smirked at that, "we are in the military, we have food, weapons, and we are about to enter the most stable quarantine zone in the country."

Anna leaned forward and asked, "Mind putting on the radio? I'd like to hear some music."

"Sure thing honey." Tony said as he turned on the radio. Country music started playing.

Anna sighed. "Well, better than nothing."

A couple of minutes later, the music cut out to a news broadcast. "... died in a car crash this morning . Filling his place as head National security Administrator is General Tanis. We received a statement from him saying that while the loss of his predecessor was tragic, the nation has to move on in the same direction."

All seven of them, even Cory, listened in silence.

"Well fuck." Said Tony, once the music came back on. He and Marcus had grim looks on their faces.

"What do you know about General Tanis?" Marlene asked.

"Well, other than that he is considered the most ruthless, power hungry, son of a bitch in the entire army, he's just your average human being." Marcus said angrily. "I honestly wouldn't put it past him to have arranged the car crash."

"He's that bad?" Jason asked, stunned.

"If anything, I'm being too kind to him." Marcus sighed. "The only reason he held on to his position for so long was because he had family connections, and he actually isn't a bad general. He's just a ruthless bastard."

They were all quiet for the next couple minutes, thinking over the news broadcast.

* * *

**[Same day, around 4:00 PM]**

"I honestly thought the traffic would be much worse." Marcus said. They were about 20 cars away from the entrance to the quarantine zone.

"I'm glad we are finally safe." Tony said, looking back to Anna, who smiled at him.

"I can't thank you enough for doing this." Marlene said.

"We've already told you, don't worry about it. What else would we do?" Kathryn told her.

The gates opened, an another car was waved into the city by soldiers. Marcus moved the van a little closer to safety.

Marcus looked to his left. The highway leading out of the city was completely abandoned, as were all of the buildings around it. Up ahead, he could here the sounds of people going on with their day to day lives, as if the pandemic was nonexistent. He smiled at the thought of his son growing up safely inside those walls.

_Maybe things will go back to the way they were before all of this_. He thought. _Things won't be the same, but I hope my son can have the quality of life that I had_. He smiled, thinking about the possibility of a future that wasn't as bleak as he feared it would be.

A few seconds later, the machine guns opened fire.

"Fuck fuck fuck!" Marcus yelled, as he stepped on the gas and turned the car left towards the abandoned road. He heard the sound of windshields breaking, people screaming in pain in the background.

_I have to get out of here!_ He thought to himself, not even fully comprehending what was happening.

He heard commotion inside the minivan, but couldn't risk paying attention. He got on the road leaving the city, and drove away like a bat out of hell.

After what seemed like an eternity of flooring the gas, Marcus stopped and pulled over.

He turned around to look at Kathryn, who was holding a crying Cory. He felt a weight leave his shoulders when he realized they were unharmed, albeit stunned by what had just happened. He looked over to Tony, who had the same look on his face as he and Anna hugged each other.

Then he saw his father. "Oh God no." He said.

Jason was bleeding from his right arm, and had lost a lot of blood. Marcus got him out of the car.

"Tony, get the medical kit out of the car now!" Hearing the urgency in his friend's voice, he rushed to the trunk of the car to find it.

"Come on dad, you're going to make it!"

"Marcus."

Marcus froze, and looked at his father, lying down on the road.

"I'm proud of you, son. Never forget that."

Marcus froze, unable to comprehend what his father was saying.

"I love you."

Tony ran up to him with the medical kit.

Jason's body went limp.

Marcus, kneeling on the asphalt, looked at his father's body for what seemed like days to him.

And then he wept.

* * *

**[Same day, around 10:15 PM]**

The five of them had been working in shifts for the past couple of hours.

Marcus and Tony took Jason's body from the car, and placed it in the freshly dug grave.

They all gathered around the body, lying motionless in the ground.

"If you don't mind, I'd like a minute alone please." Marcus said, choking up. Everyone went back inside his father's house.

He knelt next to the side of the grave, and placed his right hand on top of the cross right behind his father's head, sticking out of the ground. He started to pray.

"God, if you're out there, I know my father is with you." He looked down at his father's body, tears in his eyes.

"I should have spent more time with him. I must have caused him so much pain, with all the stuff I dragged him through, but he was always there for me. I'd be a shell of a man if it wasn't for him."

"If only I could go back and undo all of those things..." He stopped whispering, and stated crying. "Dad, if you're up there" he thought "guide me. I'm lost without you. Help me to raise Cory the way you raised me. I beg you."

He felt a hand on his shoulder. He turned around, and saw Marlene.

"I lost my father a few years ago. He was a good man."

She paused for a moment, wondering what to say next.

"He had a saying. 'When you are lost in the darkness, look for the light'."

Marcus looked at her, unsure what to feel. She continued, "In the few days that I knew your father, I can tell he raised you well. He was a good man. You have a great wife, and a beautiful son. If you're worried about failing them, don't. I know you will be a great father."

And with that she walked away.

A few minutes later, he was got up off his knees. He noticed a firefly that must have been on his right hand that entire time fly away, glowing in the dark. He looked at it for a moment, then reached for the shovel.

"Well dad, I'm sorry things ended this way." He managed to get out, still choking up. "I'll make you proud dad. I promise."

With that, he started to pile dirt onto his father's body.

When he finished, he went into the house, and cried into Kathryn's shoulder.

_Thank God I still have you and Cory. _He thought to himself.


	7. Chapter 7

**[Day 16, 10:00 AM]**

Kathryn walked down the stairs. She saw Tony and Anna sitting next to each other on the couch, watching TV. They both got up when they heard her walking down the stairs.

"'Morning" said Tony quietly, standing up to see her.

"Good morning" she said unenthused.

"Is there anything I can do for you?" Anna asked, the concern palpable in her voice.

"No, I'm fine. I'm worried about Marcus though."

"We are too. I can't imagine what he's going through, I know he was really close with his father." Said Tony.

"That's an understatement." Kathryn said sadly.

Tony turned around, and looked at the TV. "We learned why we where attacked yesterday." he said, glancing back at Kathryn.

"The official party line is that we were a group of raiders attacking the quarantine zone, trying to make off with supplies." Tony said, his voice dripping with sarcasm. "Our glorious leader, military governor Andrew Blendon, has, with _much_ regret, been forced to place the city under martial law, 'for the protection of its citizens.' In unrelated news, rations have been cut by 25%, in order to 'preserve the food in case of a crisis'."

"That sounds like something straight out of 1984." Marlene said. Nobody had noticed her walk into the house.

" 'Morning Marlene" Kathryn said.

" 'Morning"

"You're right, it does sound like something straight from 1984." Anna said.

Everyone paused for a minute.

"So, how's Marcus?" Marlene asked what everyone else was thinking.

"It's too soon to tell." Kathryn said, feeling worried. "I think he will be okay." She said, feeling just as confident as she sounded, not at all.

"I think you're right." Marlene said. Kathryn looked at her, surprised.

"He is a lot like his father, from what I can tell." She said. "Quite frankly, I can't imagine him ever doing anything to harm his son, and that includes checking out on reality." She said confidently. She placed her hand on Kathryn's shoulder and said, "He'll pull through. I know he will."

"Thanks." Said Kathryn, feeling surprisingly comforted.

Kathryn was making a cup of coffee when she heard Marcus come down the stairs.

As soon as she saw him, she felt much better. He didn't look upbeat (no surprise there), but he seemed to be coping. He walked over to Kathryn and hugged her. " 'Morning" he said.

Kathryn was a bit taken back, but didn't show it. " 'Morning."

Marcus kissed her on the cheek and let go of her.

Tony, slowly walked up to him and said, "I have some information for you. About yesterday."

Marcus looked at him, and Tony said nervously, "If you don't want to hear it, I-"

"It's ok. I'm fine. What about yesterday?" Marcus said.

Tony told him the official reason why they had been shot at.

Marcus was stunned. He made a noise that sounded halfway between a laugh and a sigh. "It's come to that already. I didn't expect people to loose their humanity that quickly."

He sat down with his coffee and said, "I'm guessing this is what really happened: they reached maximum capacity at he quarantine zone. Rather then turn us away and risk us coming back later, the soldiers were given orders to open fire."

"Holy shit, Marcus. I want to think you're wrong, but I can't think of any other reason?. " said Kathryn.

"Well, you know what they say; 'Sacrifice the few to save the many'." Marcus replied.

"Fuck that." Said Marlene. "Thinking like that will get us nowhere. I'm all for the greater good, but you have to draw a line somewhere."

"Tell that to Blendon." Tony said.

"Well, what do we do now?" Anna said.

Kathryn spoke first, "I say fuck the quarantine zones. I'm not having my son grow up in a place where it is acceptable to gun down innocents 'for the greater good'. You can't help everyone, sure, but that doesn't condone murder."

Tony and Anna both nodded. "Same goes for us." Anna said. "I will not let my child live like that."

"I refuse to live under their protection if that is the price I have to pay for it." Marlene said.

Kathryn, along with everyone else in the room, looked at Marcus. "Honey, what do you think." She asked, worried.

Thousands of thoughts were rushing through Marcus's head right now. "I just need a minute to think." He got up and walked upstairs.

He went to the crib his baby son was in.

"Dada." Cory said, looking up at his father. Marcus smiled as he picked up his son.

"Hey there Cory." Kathryn heard Marcus say softly as she walked into the room her son and husband were in.

Marcus turned around. "Hi there." He said to Kathryn.

"You want to talk to me?" Asked Kathryn.

"Absolutely." He sat down on the bed that his father had given them about 2 weeks ago. Kathryn sat next to him.

"I have an idea." He said, hesitantly. "And a year ago, I would have told you it without thinking twice." He looked down at his son.

"What are you thinking of." Kathryn asked.

"I say we start a town of our own." He said.

Kathryn laughed, but was kind of confused. "That makes sense. Their's safety in numbers, and, as I said earlier, fuck the quarantine zones."

Marcus looked somewhat relieved, and he looked down at his son again.

"I wasn't too worried about that, and I agree, fuck the quarantine zones." He stopped. "Or better yet, fuck the people running them."

He paused. "I want to take the city back." He said.

Kathryn was confused, "What do you mean, 'take the city back'?"

"I don't want Blendon controlling the lives of hundreds of thousands of people. He has no regard for human life, look what happened to my father."

"I don't want our son to grow up needing to kill to protect himself. As long as Blendon is in charge of Boise, things are going to go downhill, for everyone. Fuck, you could say that about Tanis and the entire country."

Kathryn realized what he was saying. "Are you saying we should start some sort of rebellion?" She certainly hadn't expected this.

"More or less." He said looking down at his son. "I feel like I'm faced with the choice of having my son grow up in a shitty world, with all sense of morality gone, where it's acceptable to kill innocents 'for the greater good', or risk getting him killed for a chance to live in a better world."

Kathryn was stunned. She looked at her son, then up at Marcus. "I can understand why you wanted to come up here." She said. In spite of their somber tone, they couldn't help but chuckle. At that moment, a firefly landed on Marcus's, and started glowing. Marcus just stared at it

Kathryn moved to wipe it off, but Marcus stopped her. "Last night, before I buried my father, I was praying over his grave." He looked at the firefly, with a look of longing on his face. "I had my right hand on the cross marking his grave, and when I got up, I saw a firefly just fly off it."

Kathryn wasn't sure what to make of this. Marcus continued, "You and Cory are everything to me. That's the decision I have to make. I have no worries about you, but Cory..." he stopped talking, and looked at his son. "I'm not going to lie, I want revenge for what happened to dad, but that's not my only reason."

It was a couple of minutes before they spoke again. Kathryn broke the silence. "We don't have a choice here." She said. "I will not let our son loose his humanity. You've heard the saying 'I would rather die on my feet then live on my knees', right?" Marcus nodded.

"The way I view it, we can either accept the world as it is going to become, and have our son grow up like that, or risk everything for him to have a better life."

"If it doesn't kill him." Marcus said looking down at his son.

Kathryn said ,"Nothing will happen to him while either of us is breathing, you know that right?"

Marcus responded immediately "Absolutely."

"Then it's settled. We fight."

Kathryn and Marcus both got up, and headed towards the stairs. On her way out, Kathryn noticed that firefly leave Marcus's arm, and fly out the window, glowing,"

Tony, Anna, and Marlene were waiting downstairs, waiting for the couple.

"Well," Tony asked cautiously, "what have you decided."

Marcus spoke first. "We think it would be best to start up a town of our own. Get other people who don't like what the quarantine zone is doing to join us."

Anna nodded, but said, "Something tells me that's not the only thing you talked about up there."

Kathryn nodded, "We are thinking of starting a rebellion."

Nobody spoke for a while. Tony spoke first, "Against the people in the quarantine zone? That's suicide!"

"On our own, yes. Even with an entire settlement to fight with us, your right. It would be suicide." Marcus said. "But you're forgetting something. The people inside the quarantine zone aren't going to be happy for very long. I wouldn't be surprised if in 6 months, Blendon has a problem with riots in the streets."

"I know this sounds foolish." Kathryn said, "but we have to do this. Tony, Anna." She looked at them. " What type of world do you want your child to grow up in? A world where killing innocents 'for the greater good' is the norm?"

Anna and Tony were both stunned by what Kathryn and Marcus had said. Tony nodded. "Your right. I won't let my son grow up in a world like that"

Anna said, "I agree. I won't let my child turn into a fucking animal."

Marlene was quiet for a minute, Kathryn, along with everyone else in the room, looked at her.

"If someone had told me a month ago that I was going to be a part of a rebellion, I would have told them they were crazy." She said. Everyone chuckled. "But I see the point you make. I won't let the death of innocent people become the new normal."

Anna broke the silence that followed. "I'm hungry, lets have lunch."

Nobody objected.

* * *

**[The same day, 11: 55 PM]**

"Lunch is ready!" Tony called. Everyone came to the dining room.

"That smells so good!" Kathryn said, eagerly, rushing down the stairs. She had just finished feeding Cory.

Anna and Marlene were already at the table. The table was set, and everyone had a glass of lemonade to drink.

Marcus cam up from the basement. "I'm so hungry, I could eat a horse!"

"Then this is your lucky day!" Tony said. Everyone laughed.

Once everyone was seated and served, Marcus spoke up. "Before we start, would anyone mind if I lead us in a Prayer?" Everyone nodded.

"God, these are difficult times. The next couple of months will most likely be the most difficult of our entire lives. Help us to survive these trials, and above all, not to lose what makes us human."

He paused for a moment. "Dad, if you're up their, guide me through this. Amen."

"Amen." Kathryn said, along with everyone else at the table.

"Now," Marcus said, pulling out a map of Idaho, "I think I've found a place that we can start up a settlement. But first, lets eat."

They ate, and for the next couple of hours, the five of them talked about their plans for the months ahead.


	8. Chapter 8

**[AN] I'd like to thank reddit user yourgandmasallbran for allowing me to use an image he made as a cover for this story. Also, sorry for posting this a bit later then normal. **

* * *

**[Day 22, 7:00 AM, Mountain Time Zone]**

The cars were loaded up. Anna, Tony and Marlene were in the Jeep, while Kathryn was with Cory in the minivan.

Marcus knelt next to his father's grave.

"Well dad, I guess this is it." He whispered. "Help me raise Cory the way you raised me. I'll never forget you."

He stopped for a moment, then whispered ," God, am I doing the right thing here? If anything happened to Cory because of me, I could never live with myself."

Marcus thought he heard someone next to him. He didn't look up. He heard a voice say, "A good shepherd watches over his sheep. If that means fighting off the wolves, so be it."

Marcus turned around suddenly. Nobody was there. Marcus wasn't sure what to make of this. He had heard those exact words from his father a few years ago.

Marcus got up, slightly shaken. "I hope that's a 'yes' God." He thought to himself. He made himself focus at the task at hand, and walked to the minivan.

"You ready Tony?" He said through a walkie talkie.

"Ready, let's go."

Marcus started up the Minivan, and started to drive towards the small town of Murphy, Idaho.

* * *

**[Same Day, 10:00 AM]**

"I see the town up ahead Tony." Marcus said, driving towards it on state highway 78

"Finally. My legs are killing me. Lets pull over and check it out."

They drove to the northwest edge of Murphy and pulled over. As planned, Kathryn got out of the minivan and walked up the hill next to the road. She looked through her rifle scope, trying to spot anything that could give them cause for alarm.

"Well, it looks like everyone in the town has cleared out. I can only see one guy, next to that airplane over there." Marcus looked at the runway and saw a small airplane on it. He couldn't make out anyone with his bare eyes though. He told Tony the news through the walkie talkie.

"Lets try to drive up to him in the Jeep." Tony said.

"Ok. I'm coming down there now. Send Anna and Marlene up to the minivan." Marcus said, then he looked at his wife. "If he tries anything, can you take him out from up here?" He asked her.

She thought for a moment. "I think I can hit him. Don't rely on me though, it is quite a long shot from here."

"Okay. Just don't shoot unless you hear gunshots."

"Got it."

He walked down to the Jeep, Tony was in the driver's seat, waiting for him. Marcus had the M16 from the Air Force base on him, and Tony still had the shotgun.

"If he shoots at us, don't take any chances." Marcus said.

"Wasn't planning on it."

.

Tony started to drive slowly towards the runway. Marcus could make out the man now, who seemed to be messing with the plane's engine. He also noticed that he was wearing an Air Force Mechanic uniform.

When Tony was halfway to the mechanic, the mechanic stopped what he was doing and turned around. Marcus saw him pull out a pistol, and was about to shoot him when he noticed he was moving it above his head.

"You think he's friendly?" Marcus asked Tony.

"He's not aiming the gun at us, so it looks like it."

They drove up 10 feet way from the mechanic. Marcus got out of the car first, holding the M16 in his hands away from the mechanic, but still easily reachable. He walked towards the man, who seemed a lot calmer then he should be.

"We're friendly." Marcus said, moving his shoulder back at the Jeep.

"I think I remember you." The mechanic said. "Your name's Marcus, right? You asked me to check on you're scanners the evening everything went to shit back at the base."

Marcus realized who the mechanic was now. "You're... Austin Lindauer, right?"

"Yep." Austin thought for a second, then decided to put his gun back in a holster he had attached to his side. Marcus returned the gesture by putting his rifle over his back. They walked towards each other, and shook hands.

"I'm glad neither of us got shot." Austin said, smiling.

"Same here." Marcus looked over to the Jeep, and saw Tony come out without his shotgun.

Tony walked up to Austin and shook his hand. " Just so you know, the minivan coming over here is with us.

"Not a problem." Austin said.

The minivan arrived, and everyone got out. After Austin was introduced to the rest of the group, he asked, "The sun is rising, and in case you don't know by now, it get really hot down here in July." Marcus nodded, along with some other's in their group. "The power has been cut off, but I have a generator hooked up to one of the houses. It has air conditioning. Follow me." Upon hearing air conditioning, everyone followed Austin.

Once they were safely inside one of the large houses, Austin showed them to a group of seats. Everyone sat down. "Anything I can get you? I have a stockpile here larger then you can imagine."

Marcus spoke first, "I ate breakfast before we came here. We aren't that hungry," His throat felt a bit parched though "but I wouldn't mind some water."

Once everyone had been served, Tony asked, "So, how did you manage to get out of the base? It was pretty bad when me and Marcus got out."

"You saw the airplane yourself." Austin said. "Only reason I can think of it being at the base was because it was being used to train beginner piglets the basics." Marcus nodded. He remembered flying in those things, and how he first thought that it was the most incredible experience in his life. Then he was introduced to an actual fighter jet.

Austin continued, "I had been in flight school for long enough to know how to fly one of those. Never was able to get the hang of any decent aircraft. I knew I had to get out of the base if I wanted to live, so I got in, and flew out of there. I knew that flying into or over the Boise quarantine zone would cause some alarm, I came here."

"How did you know about this place? I have never heard about it before today." Tony asked.

"Had a friend who had a friend who lived here. I remembered something about an airstrip, so I flew here."

"Nicely done. Now, how did you get all this food? It wasn't just lying here, right?" Anna asked.

"As a matter of fact, it was." Austin said with a chuckle. "By the time I came here, everyone had already left for the quarantine zone. Luckily for me, the person who lived here was one of the preper types. This note " he pulled a note out of his pocket, showing it to the group, "that says everyone in town has left for the Boise QZ, and that they couldn't fit all of their food into their van. He said whoever stumbled across this place was welcome to the rest of the food and supplies. The guy was even kind enough to leave the door unlocked and left a house key inside."

"Well, you certainly got lucky." Kathryn said. "You've been here for eleven days now, right?"

"Yep. I have enough food here to last me a year, even with all of you guys here." He sat down. "So, how have you been holding up? What brings you all here? And furthermore, why aren't you in the quarantine zone?"

Everyone in the group eyed Marcus. Austin noticed this and said in a serious voice, "I can tell something went wrong. What happened?"

Marcus spoke. "I might as well give you a brief summary of what happened. Since the base went to shit. Me and Tony, " He nodded his head over at Tony, "went to my father's farm. It's a couple of hours away from the city. Of course, Tony brought his wife, Anna, with him, and my wife, Kathryn, was already at the farm with my son, Cory. We decided to wait for a couple of days for the QZ in Boise to be completely set up. While we were waiting, we rescued Marlene from two infected chancing after her."

Marcus paused and looked up at Austin. "Did you hear about the raider attack on the QZ?"

"Yeah, I heard about it. Hard to imagine something like that would happen so soon, but that's human nature I guess."

"There was no bandit attack. When we tried to enter the quarantine zone, all the cars in front of us got mowed down. We managed to escape, but my father was killed."

Austin looked around, and saw the somber looks on everyones faces.

"Shit. That's so many different kinds of fucked up." Austin was stunned. "I- I don't even know what to say. I'm so sorry."

Everyone was silent for a minute. Marcus continued, "As of right now, the only logical reason for them to have mowed down all those people was that the quarantine zone reached maximum capacity. To prevent anyone from coming back with weapons, they decided to deal with us before any issues came up."

Austin was speechless, and just stared down at the floor. Marcus continued, "We have decided to start a... rebellion against Andrew Blendon, the man who runs the Boise quarantine zone." Marcus could feel the hesitation in his own voice.

Austin looked up. Without hesitating, he said "I'm in. Those motherfuckers are going to pay for what they did."

Marcus was a bit surprised at his enthusiasm, but he wasn't complaining. "Good. But at the moment, we have other priorities. We were going to make plans for food, but we have that issue under control."

"No kidding." Austin said.

Marlene chimed in, "Was there anything else left here that we can use?"

"Nothing left in this house that I can use. I haven't gotten around to checking the rest of them yet."

"Well then, after we eat, lets try to see what else these people left for us." Tony said.

"Sounds like a plan, I was expecting to take weeks searching through everything." Austin replied. "Now it shouldn't take more than a couple of days."

"One other thing." Marcus added," we need to have a lookout, just in case someone else comes by. It's not likely, since nobody has heard of this place, but it can't hurt to be careful."

Austin smiled. "Which one of you is the best shot? " he asked. Kathryn raised her hand.

"Well then Kathryn, I have a present for you. Be right back." He walked up the stairs. As he walked back downstairs, he was chuckling. "I only just realized the irony of this. Mrs. Barrett, meet the Barrett M95 bolt action sniper rifle."

He walked up to her and handed her the gun. "Lord, you can take me now." Everyone laughed.

"Wait a second, didn't you say there was nothing else in here that you could use?" Marcus Barrett asked.

"I did. I tried using that thing, and it nearly ripped my shoulder off. I don't have the skill to use that rifle."

Everyone had if finished eating by this point. Austin spoke, "We'll then, lets get to work. Kathryn should go to the top floor and be our lookout. There are some ear plugs upstairs, you will need them. I learned that the hard way." He continued. " The rest of us should search the town in groups. I'll go with Marcus, and the rest of you can be a group yourself."

They were about to leave when Austin called out, "Almost forgot, wait a second." He went and grabbed 6 walkie talkies, and handed everyone in the group one, "I haven't come across any infected, but in case anything happens, call it in."

"Sounds like a plan. Lets meet back here at...," Anna looked at her watch," 2:00?"

"Sounds good. Well, lets go." Austin said, and they walked out the door.


	9. Chapter 9

**[AN] For the record, I am trying to make as many places in my story actual places in the real world. The town of Murphy is an actual small town in Iowa, and it does actually have a runway. Boise is the capital of Idaho, and the Mountain Home Air Force base does exist. The farm Marcus's dad lived on was meant to be somewhere nearby interstate 84, southeast of Boise. Unless stated otherwise (in my author's notes), all places I mention do exist.**

**_Also, I feel obligated to warn you that this chapter has adult content. If you are worried about passionate sex scenes, don't worry (in fact, I can promise you that you won't ever see that in my stories). But this chapter is definitely not intended for young children. I can't get into details without spoiling it. Just trust me on this._**

**Now, to the story:**

* * *

**[Day 27, 1:00 PM]**

Marcus was in the jeep with Tony driving on highway 78. They were headed towards Grand view, a smallish suburban town a half hour away from Murphy.

"So, lets go over this one last time." Tony said to Marcus, who was sitting in the drivers seat.

Marcus continued focusing on driving the car.

"We park the Jeep just outside the town. We go house to house, to see if we can find anything, or anyone. If we find any survivors, we signal each other with the walkie talkies, then try to establish if they are friendly. If they are friendly, we ask if they have seen anyone else nearby. Then we tell them to meet us outside the town. If they are hostile on first sight, we engage. If they want us to leave, we leave. If there are infected, we leave."

"That basically sums it up."

Marcus started making some small talk," So, how is Anna holding up with the pregnancy?"

"Very well. We're lucky that we found a lot of food back in Murphy. She's already eating much more then normally. How are Kathryn and Cory holding up?"

"Kathryn is fine, and Cory is being adorable, as always." Marcus smiled.

Tony got bored and put on the radio. Country music started playing. Marcus thought he would change the channel, but Tony said, "You know what? Ever since I've been forced to spend so much time with you, your love of country music has infected me. This isn't that bad." He turned up the volume.

Marcus chuckled.

They arrived at the town a couple of minutes later.

_I really hope I don't have to use this._ Marcus thought to himself, positioning his M16 intRead ready position as he left the car

Tony got out of the car with his pump action Remington 870 shotgun. They split up, and started to explore the town.

[around 15 minutes later]

Marcus was exiting the seventh house down the street when he heard someone behind him.

"Please, help!" He heard a man saying.

Marcus turned around. _Oh shit_ he thought to himself. The man behind him was leaning next to a porch railing. He had blood all over his shirt, and looked badly wounded. He reached for his walkie talkie and talked to Tony, "I've got a wounded survivor on Kathleen Drive, get your ass over here!" He reached for his assault rifle, and ran over to the guy.

"My name's Marcus. Whats your name? Where are you hurt?"

"My name's Luke. Fucking everywhere hurts man. Please, help me get inside my house over there." He pointed to a house across the street. "It's safe there."

"Sure thing." Marcus put one of Luke's arms over his shoulders and helped him walk to the house across the street. Once they got there, he said. "I think I can support my own weight against the wall. Move over so I can unlock the door."

Without thinking twice, Marcus moved over to let the guy unlock the door. He was standing right in front of an opened window in the house's living room. He had his back to it, and was thinking, "Whatever asshole hurt this man is going to have a bad day." He was aiming his assault rifle towards the street, making sure nobody could sneak up behind the man he had just saved. "Where should I be looking?" Marcus asked Luke.

He felt a gun barrel touch the back of his head. "Not back here if you want to live."

_The motherfucker lured me into a trap, dammit!_ He thought to himself angrily.

He felt a gun jabbed into his ribcage. "Drop the gun, now." Said Luke, the man who he had blindly trusted only seconds before. Keeping his eyes straight towards the road, he took the gun off of his shoulder and lightly tossed it forward. "The revolver too." Marcus took his father's 44. Magnum, which he had kept on him ever since his death, out of its holster and dropped it on the porch floor.

"Get inside if you want to live."said Luke. _They didn't notice my combat knife! _Marcus realized with such excitement that he almost said it aloud. He started to say it, but quickly made it sound like a cough. "Shut up." Said Luke. As he was walking inside he also realized _And they don't know I'm wearing my kevlar vest under my shirt — _

As he walked in, he saw the man next to the window point a shotgun right at his head _...which is irrelevant, because of that shotgun next to my face._ he thought to himself grimly.

Marcus felt his head explode in pain as Luke pistol whipped the back of his skull. He fell to his knees and shouted, "AGHHH,.. FUCK!" He felt Luke's foot on his back push him to the floor face first. He had the same response, only this time, it was muffled by the floor. _Assholes! What the fuck do they want with me?_ He thought to himself. He felt someone pull him back up by the collar of his shirt.

"What the fuck do you want?" He asked his captors.

"For you to shut the fuck up!" Said the man in front of him.

Just then, he heard Tony's voice, sounding much more authoritative and threatening then he had ever heard before, saying, "Drop the shotgun and turn to me if you want to live." Marcus saw the barrel of Tony's 870 sticking through the opened window. The man with the shotgun turned towards Tony without dropping his shotgun.

Marcus saw the flash from Tony's 870, and saw the mans's head get shredded by buckshot.

"Oh shit!" Luke said in a shrill voice while watching his friend's head explode. Marcus reached for his combat knife and stabbed Luke in the arm. Luke Fired the pistol into Marcus's back, then dropped the pistol as pain from the knife shot up his arm. "Fuck" Marcus yelled as he felt the impact of the bullet through the Kevlar. _Damn that hurt_ he thought to himself. Marcus turned around and picked up the pistol that Luke dropped, got up, and pointed it at Luke, who was now sitting on the floor, looking up at Marcus in horror while trying to back away.

"Please don't shoot! I thought you were going to hurt me and -"

"Stop with the fucking bullshit!" Marcus said to Luke while pointing the pistol at him. He heard the door open, and Tony walked inside, carrying Marcus's revolver and M16. Marcus took them off Tony, and handed him the pistol.

"Tony, you search the house, I'll watch this asshole." Marcus said while pointing his father's revolver right at Luke's face.

Tony searched through the one story house, and called out, "All clear!"

Marcus took a step closer to Luke, who had backed himself all the way into the corner and was now whimpering and cowering in fear from Marcus.

Tony started questioning him first. "What the fuck were you doing?"

"We didn't mean to hurt you guys! We thought you were coming here to harm us!"

"I might have believed that if you simply opened fire on us when you saw us. But instead, you faked being injured to lure me into your house, then bashed my face into the floor . Stop with the bullshit." Marcus said.

He noticed Luke's eyes constantly looking back to one spot. Marcus turned around and saw that he was looking at a door that lead to what appeared to be the basement.

"Tony, did you check the basement?" Marcus asked.

"Basement? What base- Oh." Tony turned around and saw the door. "I'll check it now."

Tony opened the door and walked down the steps. Marcus heard him stop walking.

"Um... There's some pretty gnarly stuff in here." Tony said. Marcus could hear a tremble in his voice. Tony came back upstairs, with a shocked look on his face. Marcus said, "Watch him." And walked down to the basement.

What he saw horrified him.

The first thing he saw was four rotting corpses stacked against the wall. They had clearly been killed with gunshot wounds. The stench was unbearable. And that wasn't the worst of it.

He saw a man strapped into a chair unconscious. The man had clearly had the shit beaten out of him. Marcus looked to where the trapped man was facing.

There was a woman, who couldn't be any older then 21, handcuffed to a mattress with hardly any clothing on she had clearly been beaten violently, and quite recently.

_Those sick bastards were-_ his thoughts where cut off by a moan behind him.

"Let her go you motherfuckers." The man said in a weak voice. He must have just regained consciousness.

"I'm not with them." Marcus looked at the man, who was unhealthy thin. "My God. Did they even feed you?"

"No. I've been down here for three days, I think." The man said.

Marcus saw a bottle of water nearby and held it up to the man's lips. The man finished off the entire bottle.

"Please, get her out of here. If they come back they're gona-"

"We're getting both of you out of here. I'll be right back." Marcus walked up the steps, and pulled his father's Magnum out of it's holster.

He walked up to Luke.

"Look man, whatever you saw down there, I had nothing to do with it!"

Marcus, for a split second, thought of this man laying his hands on Kathryn.

"Just let me go ma-"

Marcus aimed his father's Magnum straight at Luke's forehead. He fired, and Luke's body went limp.

"Help me get those people out of here." Marcus said to Tony

They walked down stairs. Marcus used his combat knife, now covered in Luke's blood, to cut the rope binding the man to the chair. He tried standing up, but fell to the floor.

Tony caught him before he hit the ground. "Take it easy man. Lean on me." The man put his arm around Tony's shoulders.

"Do you know where they kept the key to the handcuffs?" Marcus asked the man he had cut free, pointing too the cuffed connected to the woman on the bed.

"They made a point of saying that they threw away the keys. They said that when they made me watch..." The man said, tears forming up in his eyesa he was choking up.

Marcus looked at the revolver in his right hand, which had some of Luke's blood on it. Then he looked at the handcuffs. He aimed at the chain that connected her wrist to the bed frame, and fired. The chain came right off.

Marcus picked up the woman and carried her up the stairs. Tony was up there, waiting for him with the man. Tony already had the other man's shotgun and Luke's pistol on him, and was next to the door.

They walked back to the jeep. Tony asked the man, "Before we go, I need to ask you if there were any more of them."

"No. You killed both of them."

"Do you know if there are any other survivors in this area?"

"Not to my knowledge." The reached the car and Tony helped the man get into the back seat.

"My name is Peter Mrozik. My sister's name is Elizabeth."

Marcus placed Alice in the backseat next to Peter. Peter moved her unconscious body next to him.

"Thank you so much. You saved both of our lives, and to think of watching Elizabeth go through another second of the hell those men put her through-" Peter was visibly in tears at this point.

Tony, now in the passenger side front seat of the jeep, turned around and said, "Your safe now. We'll take good care of you both."

Marcus started up the jeep. As he was about to drive off, he saw a firefly glowing on the hood of his car. Marcus smiled to himself as he drove back to their camp in Murphy.

* * *

**[AN] Well, now you know why this is rated M. Don't say I didn't warn you.**


	10. Chapter 10

**[AN] I'm going to start actually using real dates now. Also, this chapter switches from Kathryn 3rd person POV to Marcus 3rd person POV.**

* * *

**[September 8th, 2013]**

"Fire!" Kathryn said to the line of recruits she was standing behind.

All five recruits fired their hunting rifles simultaneously. As they had been trained, all the recuts ejected the empty rounds from the chambers of their weapons, pushed the bolt action back up to chamber the next round, and took aim at the targets down the improvised firing range.

"Ready... Fire!" Kathryn said again, and the cycle repeated itself.

After 3 more salvos went off, Kathryn heard Marcus contact her via walkie talkie, "Kathryn, I need you to come to HQ. It's important."

"I'll be right over." She said. She turned to the five recruits she had just been training, "That's It for today, you can head on back to the others." They left the firing range smiling.

Kathryn walked towards the HQ, centered in the house they first ate in when they decided to make a settlement here in Murphy. _Who would have thought that I would be giving firearms training to a group of rebels called fireflies._ She chuckled at that thought. When Marcus told her the proposed name for the group a few weeks ago, she almost laughed. Then she remembered what happened while Marcus was burying his father, and when she talked to him about starting this uprising the day afterwards.

She sighed, _Well, for better or for worse, here we are. Hopefully some good will come from what we do_. she thought to herself. She looked around at the people they had recruited, some on guard duty on the walls they had constructed around Murphy, others with their families, and she smiled. _At least I know we have done something right. At least half of the people here, probably more, have been rescued from bandits or infected. The simple fact that they get to live is worth all of this._

She was approaching the house and saw Tony waiting outside. "We were waiting for you, come on in."

* * *

Marcus smiled as he saw Kathryn walk into their makeshift HQ. He stopped talking to his guest and spoke to Kathryn, "Kathryn, I'd like you to meet our guest, Staff Sergeant Zachary Greco from the QZ."

"A pleasure to meet you, Kathryn." He offered his hand. Kathryn shook it.

"A pleasure to meet you too." Kathryn responded.

Marcus looked around, making sure everyone in his staff was there. He saw Tony, Anna, Marlene, Austin, Kathryn, and said "Now that we're all hear, lets get to business." Marcus and his staff sat down at the long table they had placed in the spacious living room. Zachary, along with the two sergeants that took orders from him, sat down on the other side.

Zachary spoke first. "This is quite the place you have here. The fact that you guys have managed to run a town outside of the QZ is impressive, to say the least. How do you manage to get food?"

"We'll, we have started growing some crops, and we have some gardens set up, but to be honest, we got lucky. There were around 5 houses in this area that used to be owned by the type of people who stockpiled food in case something exactly like this happened. Luckily for us, they moved into the QZ, and couldn't bring most of the food with them." Marcus told him.

"Speaking of food, that's why I'm here." Zachary said. "Simply put, we can't grow food in the city. We need to keep distributing rations to the city, otherwise, we'll starve." He paused for a moment, unsure of what to make of the amused look on Marcus's face. "We're willing to trade you medical supplies, ammo, or whatever you need, in exchange for food. You'd be doing a lot of good for a lot of people."

Marcus smiled. "An interesting offer." He hesitated for a moment before saying, "I need to talk to you alone for a minute. Follow me." He walked up stairs, with a confused Zachary following him.

They went up to the top floor of the house. There was a small table with two seats next to it. Marcus took a seat, Zachary followed his example.

"Zachary, I have a present for you. " Marcus said, smiling. He pulled out two cans of beer and asked, "I've been saving these for important occasions? Have you had one of these in the past couple of months?"

"No, but I sure would love to have one. Thanks." Zachary took one of the beers from Marcus. Marcus made a toast, "To the land of the free, and the home of the brave." He glanced at the floor and somberly added "If America can still be called that anymore." He lifted up his glass with a somber expression on his face.

Marcus was trying to gauge Zachary. _Ok. He seems to be in his mid 30's, has a wedding ring on._ Most importantly, Marcus was trying to get information about Zachary from his response to the toast.

Zachary looked to the ground with a somber look on his face. "Let's hope so." He said, sadly. They touched cans and drank. Zachary could tell from the look in his grey eyes that he clearly thought it wasn't.

_Good. I have something to work with here._ Marcus thought to himself.

"So, why did you bring me up here?" Zachary asked.

"I'll get to that soon enough. First, lets get to know each other a bit." Marcus pointed to Zachary's ring and asked, "Married?" He asked.

"Yep. Been married to Jennifer for 7 years now. How long have you and Kathryn been together?"

"We've been married for about 2 years now. We met after I completed basic training in the Air Force."

" Wait a second, you're in the military? Why didn't you go to the Quarantine Zone then?"

"I'll get to that in a minute. Got any kids?."

"A six year old girl and a four year old boy." Zachary said proudly. "What about you Marcus?"

Marcus pulled out the photo of Kathryn, himself, Cory, and Jason that he always kept with him. "Cory is about a year old." He said with a smile, pointing to his son in the photo.

"He's adorable." Zachary pointed to the older man in the picture and asked, "That his grandpa right there?" He took a drink from his can.

"Yeah. That's my father." Marcus said sadly.

Zachary paused for a second, picking up on the tone of Marcus's voice. He tentatively asked, "What happened to him?"

"That's a long story. I'll get to it soon enough. You got your parents in the QZ?"

"Nope. They died a while back. They had me when they were kind of old, but they were great." "Without them, I'd be a mess right now."

"Same here." Marcus replied sadly, taking a sip of beer.

There was an awkward science before Marcus asked, "What's your opinion on Andrew Blendon?"

Another awkward science. Zachary looked around nervously. "Nothing I say leaves this room." Marcus nodded, Zachary continued, "I wouldn't trust that corrupt son of a bitch to water a plant, let alone run an entire quarantine zone."

Marcus was surprised, but pleased. _This might be easier than I thought_ he thought to himself.

Zachary wasn't done yet. "Did you hear how he cut our initial rations in half?" Marcus nodded, that happened last month. "It's not because we're running short, although that is becoming a problem. It's because Blendon and the other higher ups are hoarding it." He paused. "He hasn't changed the rations of military families yet. It's to keep us in line, and he's doing a damned good job of it. Every time I sit down and eat, my conscious nags me that I'm getting more food than everyone else, but if I say anything about it, my children will be at risk."

Marcus was slightly surprised, and said, "That sounds like him. I haven't heard a single good thing about him."

"Trust me, there isn't one."

Marcus paused for a moment. _Moment of truth,_ he thought to himself, _if this doesn't work, I don't want to think what will happen._

"How would you like for your conscious to stop bothering you?" Marcus asked.

"What do you mean? There's nothing I can do." Zachary said somberly.

"I have something to tell you. It's about my father." Zachary was interested to hear what Marcus had to say, and sat up attentively.

"My father, myself, Kathryn, my son, Tony, Anna, and Marlene were headed to the quarantine zone on the day of the bandit attack. We got caught in the middle of it, and my father was killed." He took a swig of his beer.

Marcus was watching Zachary for any signs of hesitation or guilt. Zachary said, "I'm so sorry Marcus. At least those bandits are all dead now."

_He doesn't know_. Marcus thought to himself, very relieved.

"You passed the test." He said with a bittersweet smile.

"Wait, what are you talking about?"

"It wasn't a bandit attack."

"What do you mean?"

"I meant that we were shot at by the guards at the gate. They mowed down a bunch of the cars in front of us, and we barely managed to get out. My father got hit in the arm with a bullet, and lost too much blood." He took another sip of beer. "I buried him that night."

Zachary was stunned. "Either you're the worlds best lier, or your telling the truth." Was all he could manage to say. He was trying to see any bit of guilt on Marcus's face, but found none. He took a big sip of beer.

"It's God's honest truth. The only explanation for it that I can think of is that the QZ reached max capacity. Rather then have a bunch of angry people wanting to get into the QZ come back with weapons, they took care of the problem before it became one." Marcus drank, "Sacrifice the few to save the many."

"Fuck that." Zachary angrily said.

"My thoughts exactly." Marcus hesitated for a moment. "I need you to promise me something. I'm going to make an offer to you. If you don't agree to it, that's fine. However, if you don't accept, I'd appreciate it if you never spoke about it to anyone. Ever."

"I swear that unless the lives or wellbeing of my wife and children are at risk because of this, I won't tell a soul."

"I can't ask you for anything more. I'll cut to the chase. We're starting a rebellion. You want in?"

Zachary was taken aback by this, or at least, that what Marcus thought. Marcus continued. "Do you want that corrupt son of a bitch to be responsible for the lives and well being of your children? Do you want them to grow up under martial law, or in the 'land of the free, and home of the brave'?"

Zachary was silent. Marcus decided it was time to tie everything together. "Blendon ordered the massacre of a bunch of families, sitting in their cars, who wanted nothing more than to be safe. He gave them death."

" Don't think I started this rebellion on a whim. I have Cory to look after. But he is the reason why I fight. I don't want him to live in a world where sacrificing the few to save the many is the new normal. I want him to have a chance of living a clean life."

"I'm fighting so that my son can have a future worth living in. What's the point in living if we give up everything that makes us human. Blendon has no value for human life. He treats you well because you're useful to him. What happens when you get too old to be in the military? Do you think you will still get those full rations? Or will you just be another person who has to deal with the same shit everyone else does."

Zachary's head was spinning. He had just been asked to join a rebellion. He hadn't seen that coming.

_What would my parent's have done for me?_ He thought to himself. _They would have fought._ He realized.

"I'm with you. I swear on my parents' graves."

Marcus smiled and offered his hand, "Welcome to the fireflies."

Zachary laughed, and asked, "That's what you decided to call yourselves?"

"Long story." Marcus asked him, "The two men you brought down stairs. Will they come around?"

"If I know them, yes. They don't have any children to worry about." Zachary continued, "Most of the soldiers in my command grew up here in Idaho. Nobody here was happy to see Blendon take over. Lots of them were complaining about him, before his personal thugs were introduced to us." He said with a grimace.

Marcus stood up. "Well, lets head back downstairs. You have a lot of explaining to do to your men."

They walked back down the stairs.

* * *

As they were walking down the stairs, Kathryn looked at her husband, trying to figure out what he had spent his time doing upstairs with Zachary Greco. Marcus smiled at her. _Whatever it was,_ she thought, _at least it's not bad news._

Marcus whispered something to Zachary, who nodded, then told his men to follow him upstairs.

Marcus sat down next to Kathryn. She asked him quietly, "what was that all about?"

"You'll see."

Zachary and the other two soldiers came downstairs around 10 minuets later. Zachary was smiling.

"We're good to go Marcus." Zachary said.

"Well, everyone, sorry for making you wait this long. We have a couple of new recruits." Everyone in his staff was speechless.

Kathryn spoke first. "You really just tried to convert these guys to our cause, and you're telling us it worked?"

Zachary responded, "He told me about what really happened at the raider attack. I'm not going to take orders from Blendon. I didn't like him before, but now I know he wouldn't hesitate to kill me if it made him better off. I'm with you guys."

Tony seemed to trust him, and said, "Fine. So now you know about our rebellion. Now what are you going to do?"

"Well, that's what we're here to discuss now." Said Marcus. "I was thinking we agree to your offer. We give you food, you give us medical supplies, fuel, and generators."

"Ok, but we wouldn't be coming back here very often. It's possible we might not get back here at all. We need to know what our long term plans are right now."

Kathryn saw Marcus grin. "Then lets get started."

They discussed plans for the overthrow of Blendon for hours.


	11. Chapter 11

**[AN] I have started another series, called "Lost in the Darkness", about how Joel deals with the loss of Sarah and how Ellie enters his life. Please give it a read, it would mean a lot to me.**

**I'm sorry this has taken so long for me to upload, I'm having some trouble figuring out what to do with this series. It will continue to be uploaded, but I won't be updating it every day.**

**Sorry for the short chapter. The next one will be longer.**

* * *

**[September 19th, 2:00 PM Mountain Time]**

Kathryn walked over to Anna, who was sitting on a cot in their makeshift hospital crying. Marlene was sitting next to her, comforting Anna.

"What happened to her?" Kathryn thought. She had never seen Anna cry before.

She sat next to Anna on the other side of the cot. "What happened Anna?"

She heard Anna choke out, "Miscarriage."

_Oh fuck_. Kathryn thought to herself. She couldn't imagine what Anna was feeling right now. She sat there for a minute, speechless before she got up and walked away, feeling useless for being unable to help her friend.

* * *

**[September 20th, 4:00 PM Mountain Time]**

"Fire!"

For what felt like the thousandth time, a line of 5 soldiers standing in front of her opened fire at the targets down range.

"Inspect targets." She called out. As trained, the soldiers put their weapons down with the chambers opened, clearly indicating no bullets were inside them.

She saw the soldiers walk back, all of them were smiling. _I've trained these guys well._ She thought to herself contently as she checked over their results.

"You all did excellently. You can go back to your families now." She said.

She walked back to HQ, where she had meeting with Marcus and the rest of the staff. _I'll probably never get used to the fact that I'm a commanding officer in a revolution designed to overthrow the military dictatorship running the United States._ She thought to herself.

She walked into HQ, and was greeted by a man in military clothing from the quarantine zone. She reached for her pistol (reaching for her Barrett M95 bolt action would have been overkill, she was 5 feet away from the guy), when she heard her husband say, "Honey, meet SWAT Commander Jack Barrett. He's my cousin." Kathryn offered her hand, and Jack shook it.

"Pleasure to meet you Kathryn." He said.

"And you. Marcus told me a bit about you before, well, everything went to shit." Marcus, who was watching them this entire time, motioned for them to take a seat at a nearby table. Handed both of them glasses of lemonade. He lifted up his own glass (also filled with lemonade), and said, "A toast: to the land of the free." Kathryn and Jack both returned the toast, and they all drank.

Inexplicably, Kathryn saw a look of agony on Jack's face as he shot up and ran towards the bathroom. She heard several spitting and gagging noises. she looked over at Marcus, who was laughing uncontrollably.

"What the hell Marcus!" Jack said from the bathroom. "What type of sadistic motherfucker would mix lemonade with godforsaken Red Bull!" Kathryn burst into laughter at this.

Jack walked back to the table 5 minutes later, "Now that I have extracted every speck of Red Bull from my mouth, " he glared at Marcus, who was still chuckling. "Lets get down to business."

He looked to Kathryn and said, "Marcus told me you're in charge of training your rebels how to shoot. And from what I've been told, you are one hell of a marksman."

"At this point, almost everyone here is. " Kathryn replied.

"I've also been told that you have absolutely no training in military or police tactics. Mainly, because you weren't in the military or police force."

She had to admit that much.

"Zachary found out about me shortly after Marcus turned him over to your cause. He told me about this place, so I came here to find you, and to offer you my support."

"Great. We are always in need of more men." Kathryn said. The three of them talked for hours.

* * *

**[September 28th, 8:00 PM Mountain Time, 2013]**

"Marcus, I'm five minutes away from base." Tony said through the walkie talkie.

"Understood." Marcus replied. Tony had insisted on being part of the team that went to the Air Force base to try and salvage anything.

_I can't imagine what he's going through._ Marcus thought to himself. Tony had been working much harder than normal since Anna's miscarriage. _I wish there was something I could do for him. Something to ease his misery a little bit_. Marcus sighed. He couldn't think of anything to help his friend.

Marcus walked to the gate a few minutes later, and found Tony getting outside one of their trucks. "We didn't find too much." He said. "Oddly enough, we did find a completely operational C-130 that was untouched. All it needs is some fuel. Not that it will do us any good, its not like it could land at our landing strip."

As soon as Tony mentioned the cargo transport aircraft, an idea came into Marcus's head. "Come to HQ Tony. Tell you crew they have the night off." Tony gave the group that scavenged the air base the good news, then followed Marcus to the HQ.

"Tony, can I get you anything?" Marcus asked. He really wished he could help his friend, but couldn't think of anything remotely useful.

"I'll be honest. I could really use some fucking alcohol right now."

Marcus grabbed a beer and handed it to him. Tony took a giant swig as he sat down. "Thanks."

"If there's anything I can do, don't hesitate to ask me." Marcus said.

Tony had his face in his hands, but he looked up and nodded. "Thanks."

Marcus was about to begin speaking, but Tony cut him off, "There is actually something you can do for me. Mind if we have this conversation tomorrow. I just want to sleep right now."

Marcus looked at him and nodded. "Get some sleep. God knows you need it badly."

Marcus saw his best friend walk out of the room in silence.


End file.
